Pfizer has banned the use of their drugs for the death penalty

American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has banned the use of their agents in the lethal injection, citing ethical considerations.

According to the statement of the company, its products are designed to save lives. In Pfizer are strictly against the fact that their products were used during the enforcement of executions.

The company’s decision, apparently, deprive the American prison system last source of drugs used for executions. Previously, more than 20 us and European pharmaceutical companies have already introduced similar restrictions on the use of its products.

Pfizer intends to limit the sale of seven drugs that can be used as components of a lethal injection, as well as more control over what they buy.

Rights groups have long opposed the use of medicines as a method of capital punishment.

Lethal injection – the most commonly used method of capital punishment in the United States. Typically, the States where executions are carried out, using a combination of drugs that have in a short term lull of the convicted person and block his breathing, which eventually leads to heart attack and death.

Because pharmaceutical companies refuse to sell drugs to States for executions, they are looking for alternative ways to obtain these substances, either replace lethal injection in other types of penalty.

In 2014, an inmate in Oklahoma died only 43 minutes after the lethal injection, as the injected into his body, is a combination of drugs not previously tested.

Pfizer was founded in the USA in 1849 and is now one of the world leaders in the pharmaceutical industry.